A
reprint is a commercial reproduction of the movie art released at
the theater. Reprints are primarily divided into 2 major categories:
Commercial size reprints and theater size reprints. Even though
both sizes are still commercial reprints and therefore have no collectible
value, there is still a big difference in their handling and acceptance.

Commercial
size reprints

A
commercial size reprint is a commercial poster printed with the movie art image. These posters are
produced by the regular commercial printers that pay the royalties
to the studio to use the one sheet artwork. They normally measure
24"x36" or smaller and are sold through normal retail
and discount stores.

Theater
size reprints

The
theater size reprints are a different story. These posters are normally
produced in Europe and shipped to the United States. They take a
larger printing press to produce the 27"x40" theater size.
Some are marked with the printers, like Zig Zag, across the bottom
to mark the reprint, but others have no reprint markings at all.To
non-collectors, these are GREAT! You can get theater size posters for classic movies like Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars,
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Casablanca that actually look BETTER than the originals because: they don’t have fold lines;
they’re on a glossy paper; they don’t have the wear; AND they’re
at the GREAT reprint price. What more could you ask for!!!!!!To
a collector, as long as you’re dealing with movies before 1984 (these
were shipped folded) or posters that actually had a white border
(these were 27"x41"), is easy to tell the difference.
But newer releases are becoming so close that, more and more, these
are becoming a problem to the collectors’ world. With the increase
in printing technology, these theater size reprints are being printed
on the same quality paper, and are becoming harder to distinguish
from the originals. In the last few years, collectors have started
shifting to the light box posters double-sided to help distinguish the difference. Some collectors base their whole
collections on them. NOW BEWARE, there is one printer that has started
printing double-sided reprints in Europe which will really become
a problem. Even though they haven’t been widely distributed YET,
because they’re a lot more expensive to print, expect to see these
collector’s nightmares raise their heads when there’s a major poster
that will make it worth while.